Walking Dead: Requiem/Page 14
Page Fourteen: Foliage "STOP RIGHT FUCKING THERE!" shouted Matthew, aiming the mossberg at the head of the man leading the group. "Matthew," called Anna from inside, "whats---" Before she could finish, David kicked the door shut with his foot, never stopping to aim the AR-15 semi-automatic towards the intruders. Off to the side of the cabin behind one of the two remaining utility-vehicles was Joshua, aiming another semi-automatic at them as well. "Don't let them inside David!" he shouted to his friend. "Seems like you've got some friends in there... all of them armed?" asked the leader, his voice non waving to the sight of three armed men guarding the front of the swanky log cabin. "Doesn't matter asshole, what the hell do you want?!" In the week that has passed since dead people started getting up to eat the living, Matthew Lamar Dennis has learned that people in chaos are NOT to be trusted. The journey from Roxboro, North Carolina, into Natural Bridge, Virginia, had shown him that much. "We need safety?! A place to catch our breath?! We're DYING here!" David whispered to Matt as he stepped off of the porch and closer to the stand-off, "Dude, there's gotta be fifteen of them!" "I know man." Matthew replied, his right bicep tightening into the stock of his shotgun out of sheer adrenaline. "HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THERE?!" Matthew demanded. The leader, a tall, hispanic man in his fifties proceeded to approach the group with his hands in the air. Behind him were a number of other survivors, including women and children, all huddled in fear among what appeared to be their entire family. "Stop it!" ordered Matt, training his shotgun away from the crowd and still on the man's head. The man stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees, beginning to pray in Spanish before asking, "We just need to rest... my name is Caesar and this is my family... we're very tired and need a place to rest, at least for little while!" After another tense staredown between Matt and the newcomer, the front door behind him burst open and Anna approached the scene, followed by both her mother and Matthew's. "Matthew! What in the HELL is going on?!" she demanded, seeing the horrified man on his knees before the black-steel barrel. All at once, the family behind the man dropped to their knees and began to cry, pray and beg as well. Anna approached Caesar and Matthew lifted away his shotgun, backing up next to David. Matt lowered the aim of the AR and looked to Dave, who nodded back. "What the fuck guys!?" called Joshua, still aiming his rifle at them. "She knows what she's doing, just hang back!" Matt replied. All at once, Anna Castro began to question the man who cried his soul to her in Spanish, "Que esta haciendo?" she asked calmly. "Mi familia y yo hemos estado moviendo desde que todo esto empezo. Por favor, por el amor de Diso nos ayude, aunque Dios es el que nos ha dejado todo..." Anna looked solemnly at the man and then turned to look at Matt. "Honey, they're harmless." she said to him. Matt looked to Dave once again before turning to go back inside. Joshua finally lowered his weapon and scratched his head in confusion. Anna turned to Caesar with a smile and said, "Siempre y cuando de promete no hacer dano de mi familia y estan despuetos a renunciar a sus armas, y luego venir mi casa y ser bendecidos." Caesar jumped to his feet, overjoyed with the happy turn of events for him and his family, for there were STILL kind enough people to help their fellow man in this world of the damned. His family began to swarm the porch, thanking the survivors in their own language as Anna made it back inside to catch up with Matt. As he entered the kitchen, Matt picked up the half-empty bottle of water and began to chug it as Anna approached him from behind. David entered as well, trying to escape the chaotic scene of gratitude outside. In the last week, he had not thought it possible to be overwhelmed by something like happiness, rather than death. "What a treat, huh?" asked David half-heartedly, entering the kitchen with Matt and Anna. The joke went under the radar as Matt turned to Anna, his massive frame barely able to even fit in the cabin's narrow kitchenette, "What the FUCK Anna?! This isn't even OUR place!" he barked. Anna cocked her head as she replied, "Look, they're a FAMILY baby, and besides! We need their help!" Matt looked to David, who was thinking to himself.'' Extra hands on deck, means more people for scrounging supplies from town, more people to keep watch, etc, etc... but the obvious problem would be placement and of course FOOD...'' "You can't be serious man..." began Matt, noticing the thought process his best friend was mentally deciphering. David shrugged his shoulders before stating, "It's not like this whole thing is getting easier anyway dude... maybe having some establishment with a larger group would come to our advantage." "I don't know, that just means more mouths to feed and less room for us..." Matthew replied, trailing off as he noticed the selfishness in his own voice. He looked down, saddened with horror of the man he would surely become if he continued living the way he had been training to be for so many years after highschool. Anna hugged him as David said, "I'll go work on getting the rules out to them... they should be pretty cool about respecting our way of going about things here." Anna piped up, "I should go too. Be there in a second!" David proceeded to exit the cabin and leave the two lovers alone. Anna laid her head into Matthew's wide-chest, listening to the sound of his heart beating, heavy with guilt and confusion amongst what was surely love and compassion. "It'll be OK papi..." she began, her sultry accent dripping into every single word, "I know Eric and his family would want us to help others." Matt leaned down, his large form overwhelming Anna as he reached down for her incredible buttocks. Grasping what he could with his already big hands, he was only able to cover maybe a fourth of what her buxom bottom displayed. Not too long ago on the shooting range, Murphy told Matt his girlfriend looked like she stuffed two throw-pillows in her jeans.... Murph.. oh God, what about Murphy... Matt asked himself. Noticing Matt had only lifted her halfway before stopping to think, Anna wrapped her legs around his waist and began work her way up the rest. She couldn't help but feel like a stripper as she reached his face and brought her lips to his. In that moment, she was hoisted further and the two shared a moment of passion that they had long needed since arriving at the Mason's summer home. Just as the spicy kiss began to get spicier, Matthew's mother Heather entered the cabin followed by Anna's mother, Caesar and his family. As the number of people flowed into the quaint though spacious living room, Matt lowered Anna gently to the floor as he approached his mother and Caesar. He noticed that the family members, consisting of several children, were carrying packs, boxes and bags. Anna went to help her mother with some of the others, carrying in what used to be a refrigerator box. "What is this?" asked Matt to his mother. "They're staying in here for tonight. They've got two cars on the road and are out of gas." she replied. "No mom," began Matt, "All this stuff they're bringing in." Caesar, having overheard the exchange, approached the mother and son, "Food, water, medicine. We've come a LONG way senor, and we have much to share!" As Matt saw what was probably the youngest child enter, a small girl of six or seven, carrying a loaded down box, he proceeded to approach her and take the box from her hand. She looked up to him, her face brown with splotches of black oil and muck across her face. Through the grime ontop of this little face, smiled the humbling warm grin of a little child. Matt smiled to her, saying, "Gracias" The little girl ran to her mother who began scolding her in spanish as Matt's smile simmered into one of fear, knowing he would have to arrange things now. He approached the dinner table, beginning to stand up on it as everyone began to fall silent and watch. Anna caught a gaze he tossed her, knowing what she would have to do and began to approach the crowd. David entered the room with Josh just in time to see that Matt was taking charge of telling the rules. "I'll go check on Murph, tell him what going down..." he told David. David nodded as Josh approached the stairs behind the table Matt was standing on. "Anna, please follow my lead" he said. "FAMILY OF CEASAR! PLEASE LISTEN TO ME, THROUGH HER! THANK YOU!" he commanded, Anna reciting the jist of it into Spanish, "Thank you... my name is Matt. This young woman speaking is my girlfriend Anna and this cabin belongs to our friend, who is not here yet" Matt allowed Anna time to translate the sentence, waiting a few beats before continuing, "We will allow you to stay, as long as you promise not to STEAL, not to DESTROY and to ask before going, or doing ANYTHING! Other than that, things should be fine for now... we will need someone to take WATCH. As you all surely know by now, hostiles are taking on the world but we're fighting back! Me, my friends David, Josh and Murphy, are NOT soldiers, but trained with handling weapons and survival none-the-less" As Anna reciprocated every word to the family, she also introduced her mother, Matt's mother and David, which would cause them to all look around the room at one time. Though these were her people, she couldn't help but be creeped out about it. Suddenly, before her or Matt could continue, Josh appeared from the stairwell and shouted to them, "FUCK man, Murphy is GONE!" Matt took in the frightening realization before meeting the petrified stare of Ceasar, unable to miss it after the statement from Josh. "THANK YOU EVERYONE," Matthew said before finishing with,"If you have ANY questions, please ask Anna or her mother Maria! Thank you!" Matt hopped off of the table as Anna finished the retort in Spanish, approaching Joshua with David, Heather and Caesar. "What do you mean he's gone?" Matt asked Josh. "Come see!" he replied, running right back up the stairs followed by the others. Inside the master bedroom of the Mason summer home, Matt saw a bloody trail leading to the open window nearby. It appeared as though Murphy had gotten out of the bed he'd been carried too only a few hours earlier and instead of coming to see the others, he had instead dove out of it. Matt walked over to the window and looked outside, seeing no sign of his fallen friend. "When the FUCK did this happen?!" he demanded. "Not sure," Josh replied. Dave interjected, "Maybe when we were out there introducing ourselves?" "Excuse me, por favor, how was you're friend hurt?" asked Ceasar timidly. "He got bitten on our way into Virginia. Died in here a few hours ago." replied Heather. Matt whirled back at his mother, "Died?" he asked in confusion. "Yes, son, died. We, didn't want to tell you right away, please understand..." she replied. Matt had to sit down on the blood-soaked satin sheets on top of the king-sized bed in order to take in what he was hearing all the way. Ceasar continued, "Oh my God... we are in MUCH more trouble now!" The man began trembling, catching the attention of everyone else. "What the hell are you talking about?" Ceasar Ramos looked down for a way to answer the young man's question, seeking out a way to tell him what his friend has now become. "Y-your friend, he was, bitten?" he asked again. "Yes man! OUT WITH IT!" exclaimed David with concern in his eyes. Finally, Ceasar revealed to this group the truth of the world they were living in, "Th-the b-bite... it kills you... you come back.You come back as one of the riggies..." "Riggies?" Matt questioned, a stiff annoyance in his tone. "YES, something a man on the news calls them... you know! The DEAD people walking! The, THE WALKING DEAD!" All at once, the group took in the realization of how this disease had been able to spread so fast... once you were bitten, you died, you came back. *** "No, Mario! Quit it! We've gotta stay inside!" begged Consuela, her boyfriend Mario pulling her hand as he headed behind the cabin. "No way I'm staying here baby, not with some crazy rednecks calling the shots!" he replied, carefully stepping to the driver side door of one of the pickup trucks. He withdrew a knife and pick from his pockets as he said to her, "Keep watch, let me know if someone's coming!" "No Mario! I'm NOT leaving my family!" Consuela said, putting down her foot for once. Mario stopped what he was doing and looked to her angrily. "Why? So we can share a hitched-house with all eleven of em!? Fuck that! We DESERVE to be on our own!" Consuela thought for almost two seconds on account of Mario's passion before he went right into the whining she had come to expect, "Pleeeeeease baby, come on!" "Fine!" replied Consuela, turning to watch the corner of the house while Mario picked the lock of the Avalanche. "You'll see baby, it'll be all good from here, I mean it---- AGHH!" Before he could finish, Consuela whirled back around to see that one of the walking dead had snuck up on him from behind the house and bit into his arm. "MARIO!" she screamed, running over to punch the lanky young walker in the face. With everything she had, she punched the man so hard it ripped away the grip from Mario's arm, allowing the young man to fall against the truck in agony. Consuela could only stand and watch as the dead man dropped the chunk from it's mouth, thinking what was before him to be a better meal. As Consuela began to back away, the dead man stalked towards her with his arms stretched out and tackled her down all at once. Screaming for her life, she braced for the bite when out of nowhere, Mario appeared and tackled it off of her to the side. "RUN CONNIE! RUN GOD DAMMIT!" he ordered, unable to stop the dead man from biting into his throat this time. His scream, silenced by a gurgle of blood that bounced out of his mouth and across the truck. Stuck in horror, Consuela watched as her boyfriend died and the dead man continued to eat off of him. Thinking to herself the possibilities, ironies and things that would have mattered in the past fifteen minutes, she watched as the thing chose to look at her and begin crawling to her feet. As it reached for her, she was dragged away at the last moment from behind as she fell into a void of darkeness. Matt could only watch as Ceasar and one of the other men in his family dragged the now unconscious girl away from the carnage, all the while watching Murphy moan and clamber closer his way. The kid couldn't have been sixteen years old, as if that even mattered now. All that mattered now was that his friend was closing in on him to take a chomp out of his skin. "Fuck man..." exclaimed David, "back up." David stepped forward pass Matt, taking aim at Murphy's head. "Wha-- what are you doing man?" he asked. David replied, "You shouldn't have to do this again. Not too him." David squeezed the trigger and Matt approached the body of the young latino, taking aim with the shotgun. "No! You can't!" shouted Ceasar but he was hushed by Anna who had come out along with the rest of the family. "Sorry amigo..." he said before putting the lead into the soon-to-be walkers skull. *End Of Page Fourteen. To Be Continued. Category:Walking Dead: Requiem Issues Category:Walking Dead: Requiem